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I was born and brought up in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Left school at 18, trained for 3 years to teach French. Spent most of my teaching career in Bradford schools, working first in middle schools, and from 2000 onwards in the secondary sector. I retired as Head of Languages from a large comprehensive school in October 2014 shortly after my 55th birthday, and now live in France with my wife Maureen. We have one son, Calvin who lives and works in Leeds and is also interested in the game.

I started playing (snooker) on a friend’s 6′ table at around age 12. Through another friend whose father played billiards I discovered Eastbrook Hall Men’s Institute which had two full size tables. I joined the club and started playing billiards at the age of fourteen and soon had a regular place in one of their teams. I won the leagueâ€™s individual billiards merit completion in 1975-76 age 16, and again in 2008-09 age 49. The â€śhigh pointâ€ťof my billiards career on the bigger stage was losing narrowly to Ian Williamson in the Yorkshire area final of the English under 19 championship in 1977.

Teacher training forced a three/ four year break from the game from 1978, and although I played again for a few years during the 80s, it wasn’t until the mid/late 2000s that I took up the game again. I reached a relatively good standard for the local leagues, playing for Eastbrook in both the Bradford, and Pudsey Sunday School leagues, regularly making breaks in the 30s/40s and 50s, my highest league break was 62.

Following my early retirement in 2014 we sold up in Bradford, and purchased a house in France. I now practise on a 10 foot table in a room we converted in the garage (sadly just too small for a full size table!) Cue is a Craftsman Âľ jointed, hand spliced, ebony and ash , 20 oz with an 8.7mm elkmaster tip.